"Discipline For Me, But Not For Thee?"

That is the essence of the argument put forth by Captain Owen Honors, who was fired as captain of the USS Enterprise over his "XO Movie Night" videos when he was the Executive Officer of that ship. Honors claims that numerous senior officers had full knowledge of XO Movie Night, beyond the admirals named in the story.

Some of what Honors claims does not pass the "so, what" test. Particularly this:

The concept was born, Honors wrote, when the ship’s public affairs officer told him he was “required” to choose the film to be featured on “XO Movie Night.” Honors said he wanted to explain his choice to the crew, and the explanations evolved into the skits, which relied on “both bluntness and humor” to inform the crew about important shipboard topics, as well as to boost morale.

First off, note that all that he was "required" was to choose a movie. The rest was his damn idea.

Second, I am very skeptical of the claim that Honors was "required" to do that. If he didn't want to, all he had to do was tell the PAO: "Oh yeah? Show me where it says that I have to do that."[1] I really doubt that there was such a requirement and even if there was, it would have taken an XO all of forty seconds to change the requirement.

Third, a captain has virtually unlimited power to get rid of an officer as a subordinate. The reason can be as simple as "I have lost confidence in this officer" and BLAMMO- the officer is on the beach with his seabag. Of course, if a captain is cavalier about it, he in turn can get fired. Firings are investigated and if there is arguably lack of good cause, the fired officer will get another chance as the Navy usually is not about to scotch the career of a promising officer because her captain was a douchebag.[2]

Having written all that, Honors has a point: He has been punished, not for what he did, but for becoming an embarrassment to the Navy. Too many flag officers knew what was going on beyond the two admirals who were captains of the Enterprise when Honors was XO and the two who were embarked group commanders. By not ordering a stop to XO Movie Night, they tacitly approved of it.

But I would not look for much to happen. The Flag Officer Protection and Benevolent Society (which can include those on the fast track for selection) will be in full operation, as it has before.[3]

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[1] It would be in a ship's instruction or the Ship's Organization and Regulations Manual (the SORM).
[2] Though this is less likely when the person getting shitcanned is a captain of a major command.
[3] Which is why I regard the show NCIS as a comedy.